


What about us?

by beingonstageismagic



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Cute, Eventual Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper, F/M, Love, Post-Episode: s04e03 The Final Problem, Post-The Final Problem, Sherlock Being Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes Has Feelings, Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper Fluff, Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper Kissing, Tears, Truths, Worried Sherlock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-26 07:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14396874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beingonstageismagic/pseuds/beingonstageismagic
Summary: "Molly, what about us?""What?" she scoffed, "Sherlock, there is no us."Molly's leaving, London is full of too many memories, too many shadows loom over her and she wants a fresh start. She wants to move on.Sherlock doesn't want her to do any of those things.





	What about us?

Molly wiped a tear from her face as she stared at the empty room that was once her beloved and cozy lounge, the barren kitchen stood metres to her left and her stairs, once decorated with photos of herself with her favourite people, were left desolate and alone. The air was heavy and her lungs hurt. She swallowed the lump in her throat like a sour pill and closed her eyes tight, locking them shut.

"Molly?"

The deep, baritone voice tore through the air and attacked her ears. She spun in shock to meet the hurt eyes of Sherlock Holmes, a scribble of confusion drawn across his face.

"Sherlock, what are you doing here?"

She sniffed. He breathed.

"John told me, but I didn't believe him. I wouldn't believe him."

"Yeah, well, it's true, Sherlock. I'm leaving."

She moved to walk past him, heading for the packed car outside her yellow door.

His hand fell onto her arm, stopping her. Heat rushed from his fingertips into her veins and she flinched.

"Why?"

"What?" Her incredulousness slapped Sherlock across the face, a red handprint wounding his cheek and heart.

"Molly, please, I- I-"

"Sherlock, spit it out. If you have nothing to say to me, then I'm leaving."

His face blanked and a lightning bolt of hurt struck his features.

"Molly, what about us?"

"What?" She scoffed, "Sherlock, there is no us."

"Of course there is."

"I don't have time for this."

She moved towards the door and opened it, looking back at him before crossing the threshold.

"I don't have time for your games anymore." She turned and headed for the car, "or the heart." Was whispered under her breath as she opened the door.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

She stood on the platform, staring a hole into her train, the tannoy shrieking above her head. The tinny toned female voice mingling with the hundreds of thoughts swimming around Molly's head. She felt dizzy and overwhelmed. She felt broken and lost. She felt nauseous and uneasy. She felt ... she felt alone. All alone.

She took a deep breath and steadied herself. She could do this. She was in control now. She could do this. She pushed her hair behind her ears and looked up from the grey stone she'd been staring at on the floor.

Then she saw it.

The billowing Belstaff coat blowing behind a tall, dark-haired man who was rushing across the platform opposite her.

He was looking for something.

Maybe her.

She felt as though every ounce of strength she had to fight against her forever fawning heart was going to crumble. How could she have ever believed she'd be able to move on, to leave him behind? She wasn't strong enough for that. Obviously.

"Molly."

Her facade shattered as his breath moved her hair. He breathed heavily, the fatigue of his running taking its toll. She crumbled as the waterfalls fell from her eyes, tumbling down her cheeks with rapid force.

"Sherlock, please don't." Her tears obscured her words.

"Molly, I-"

"No!"

The voice that came from her was more of a roar than she'd expected and she lowered her tone before continuing. "I can't do this, Sherlock. I won't. It's my time to go. Too much has happened. Too much to just wash over. I can't do this anymore. I can't live with this shadow over me, this reminder of what could never be. It haunts me, Sherlock. It laughs at me and it taunts me. It lays on me. It's unforgiving and I- I-"

The tears won the battle between speech and sobs and she cracked. Sherlock stood shocked. He didn't reach for her. He didn't speak to her. He simply watched, blankness and panic etched across his eyes. The sobs wracked her body as she tried her utmost hardest to subdue them. The sight of her was too much pain for his eyes to handle, yet too much emotion for his heart to say no. He watched as she tried to stifle the crying, ignoring the stares of other train passengers. Strands of her hair stuck sickeningly to the tear stains running down her cheeks and her hand shook as she reached to attempt to wipe away some tears, even if it was futile.

He reached forwards and placed his hand protectively against her shoulder, this time, sparks flew from his fingertips making her very nerves tingle. He placed his other hand in a mirror image of the first. Her heart slammed against her ribs, the taste of anticipation in her throat displeasing her tastebuds.

She continued to cry. He continued to panic. He continued until the words escaped him, he wasn't ready for them to propel from his lips and assert themselves in the air between them. He wasn't ready to have to stare his feelings in the face. Yet, they escaped him anyway.

"I love you."

She blanked. The blood flowing through her veins stilled.

She felt sick.

"Sherlock, please, just don't."

"It's true."

"How can it be true?"

"I - I - I don't know, I just know I meant it, I mean it."

A silence settled over him as the tannoy announced the last call for her train. She looked at the train and then back to him. His face was so scared, so desperate, she barely recognised it as the face of Sherlock Holmes.

"Please."

He begged her to stay. His hands still holding her in front of him.

A heavy silence settled over them as neither of them moved. They didn't dare to. The suspense hanging over them like black smoke. It thickened to a heavy sheet of glass, which elongated to form an enclosed cube around them. It separated them from the hustle and bustle of the station. It was just them. Sherlock and Molly. And silence.

The glass shattered as the train closed its doors and drove away.

The sigh of absolute relief that escaped Sherlock swept Molly's hesitation away.

"Come with me?"

She nodded.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The cab ride home was silent also, with both passengers giving the other time to process. When arriving at 221B, Sherlock grabbed all of Molly's bags and walked up to the step, unlocking the door and holding it for Molly to enter before him.

"Thank you." Her hand shot out to grab one of her bags. But his gentle voice stopped her.

"I've got it."

He smiled softly and she felt it more than saw it, she returned the expression.

Molly clambered up the stairs and flopped onto the couch, her head spinning and her feet struggling the keep her upright. Sherlock just ferried her things up the stairs and piled them in his living room.

"Sherlock, maybe this wasn't the best idea."

"What do you mean?"

His hurt was evident on his face and it made Molly's heart clench.

"No, no, not because of anything to do with you, it's just- I sold my house, I sold basically all of my belongings, Mike's in the middle of processing my transfer. I - I don't have anything, nor do I anywhere to go."

He moved from where he'd been standing and lowered himself to her level on the couch, he swallowed his nerves - the unpleasant taste making him want to shut his eyes and wince - and took her hand.

"You have me." He smiled at her again, a true smile, and she looked at his warm hand resting upon her cold one before returning it, "And you can move in here. Stay with me. I'll sort the job thing out, don't worry about any of that."

"Sherlock, I can't do that."

"Molly, when I said I love you, I meant it. I meant it with everything I am. It may have taken me a while to realise it, but the thought of you getting on that train..." he took a deep breath, his emotions getting the better of him and tears stinging his deep blue eyes, "I just cannot lose you. And I'm aware that my timing could have been better, I could have told you this months ago - God knows I should have told you after that bastard phone call - but in truth, Molly, if I'm being one hundred percent honest with you - and that's what I want to be - I was scared."

"You were?" He nodded, "Why?"

Again, he took a breath big enough to fill him up from head to feet.

"Because you are my world, Molly Hooper. You are my land and my ocean, my sun, my moon and my stars. You are the person that matters most to me, my world would fall apart without you in it. Yes, I love John, Rosie and Mrs Hudson and Greg - but that's a different kind of love to the way I love you. And that's what's taken me so long, too long to figure out." He took her other hand and turned so he could look at her more intently, "I love you in such a way that it makes my bones tingle when I think of you, when I see you in a corridor or just across a street, I stop and look after you because just seeing you makes my day. When you're near me, my heart feels lighter and the world seems happier. No matter the situation, you always make me feel as though I am strong enough to handle it. You have saved me, Molly Hooper. And not just by helping me with my fall, but many, many times after that. When I was alone and, truthfully, terrified when taking down Moriarty's network, I would think of you. I would imagine you were there with me, to make a morbid joke for me to laugh at, or to tell me something I'd missed, to show me a way out, to hold me and tell me everything was alright. You got me through that dark time, Molly and for that I will forever be grateful." Somewhere during the last part of his speech, his gaze had dropped to his burning hands, wrapped around hers, but now he looked back up at her, "I do love you, Molly Hooper. Please believe me when I say that."

Molly kept his gaze but a smile broke across her cheeks and she raised her right eyebrow. He tilted his head in question and wrinkled his forehead as he knitted his own eyebrows together.

"I didn't know you found my jokes funny." She laughed then, and Sherlock's face blanked. He looked so confused, it only made Molly giggle more.

"Molly, I don't understand- you know I always laugh, well perhaps you don't as sometimes I don't express my laughter outwardly - but really I did not think that that would be the one thing you took from everything I just said to you- I mean-"

His next words were born on his breath but died at his lips as Molly ended his rambling by placing one fragile hand on each chiselled cheek. His eyes grew large as he looked into her own, which were full of cheer as she continued to laugh.

"Sherlock."

He blinked in response, her giggle faded out, and she leant into him. His eyes stayed open as he watched her bring her head to his own. Her lips touched his and he lost his thoughts. His eyes closed and his hands moved to touch her, anywhere. In the end, they settled on her sides and pulled her closer to him. Her lips continued to move over his and the sparks in his heart set off fireworks in his stomach - a feeling much more intense than butterflies, he found. He had lost all train of rational thought and struggled to gain his grip back on reality when she pulled away slowly. His eyes remained closed and she watched him. She tucked her hair behind her ear, and reached up to move a curl from his forehead. His eyes remained closed. She copied his strategy of filling herself with extra air.

"I love you too."

The whispered words floated between them from a while, before landing on Sherlock's shoulder and creeping softly into his ear. His eyes snapped open.

"You do?"

She nodded.

"Always."

They shared a smile. Sherlock placed his large hand across the side of her face.

"Always." He smiled.

He kissed her again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to comment and send any requests you may have! Xx


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